The issue with men with a high hairline is that most men have at least some thinning of their hairlines as they age. The fear would be visibility of the incision with time. I advise most men to strongly consider hair grafting as an option to lower their hairline. Forehead reduction surgery is an option for you IF you understand that there will most likely be a need to have at least some hair grafting done in the future, probably on the order of 200-300 hair to help camouflage the incision. This is a reasonable option since using only hair grafting to lower a hairline might necessitate over 3000 grafts.

Although you will look really good almost right away after forehead reduction surgery, there are 2 limiting factors usually for you to feel totally comfortable sleeking your hair back. The first is the incision healing time that may vary depending on your skin type and the way that you heal. The incision looks great even after 2 weeks, but will get better and better for several weeks after that. For people with more pigment in their skin, there might be a bit more of redness associated with the incision that might last a bit longer.

The second limiting factor is your rate of hair growth. Hair will start to grow through the scar and in front of it slowly helping the hide the incision even more. This step may take a few months, depending on the rate of your hair growth.

On the conservative side, I would say it will take about 2 months for you to feel comfortable sleeking your hair back if you are a good healer with fast hair growth, and could take as long as 5-6 months if you have darker skin with slower hair growth.

The one stage hairline lowering surgery, also known as forehead reduction surgery, can lower the hairline by about 1 inch. The incision is made right at the hairline and is virtually undetectable when it heals. Hairs grow back through the incision further helping camouflage the incision.

This procedure works well for people with a relatively dense hairline. If your hairline is thinning, this procedure might still be a good option in conjunction with hair grafting. I work with a hair transplant specialist, so If you fall into this group, a join procedure can be performed by both of us.

If your hairline needs to be lowered significantly more than an inch and a half or two, you might need to have scalp expansion performed to help stretch the scalp out before the actual hairline lowering surgery is performed. I will talk to you about all your options, and we will decide which group you fall into.

feel free to read our hairline lowering surgery / forehead reduction surgery page